OTTAWA — Quebecor Inc. says it is no longer seeking a controversial special licence that would give the new right-leaning Sun TV 24-hour news channel a three-year boost in seeking out viewers.
Chief executive Pierre Karl Peladeau told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that he would likely drop his request for a must-carry exemption on his Category II licence application.
Under such a exemption, carriers would have to make the channel available, likely either as a paid add-on service or as part of a speciality package in addition to basic cable
"I would say there's a possibility that we drop our condition and go simply to Cat. II," Peladeau said.
An official with Quebecor later said the decision had been already been made. A letter will be sent to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission within a few days withdrawing the request, which would have been the subject of a public hearing Nov. 19, the official said.
The change of tack likely removes all impediments for Quebecor to receive a licence to broadcast, and almost certainly means the public hearing will not be held.
The request was expected to be hotly contested, with rivals and many civic groups lining up to oppose the application. Last week, the advocacy group Avaaz dropped off 10 boxes to the CRTC containing more than 21,000 letters from Canadians opposed to the special licence.
This is the second time that Quebecor has lowered its sights on what licence it could obtain. Initially, it had wanted a mandatory carriage licence that meant Canadians would have had no choice but to receive the station on their basic cable package, as is currently the case with CBC Newsworld.
This summer, the company said failing to get the same treatment as CBC Newsworld would doom the upstart.
"This would be fatal to our business case ... and would likely result in the cancellation of the Sun TV News project," Quebecor wrote the CRTC.
The CRTC had earlier told Quebecor no such licences would be considered until after Sept. 1, 2011, and that in any case, starting then all cable news and sports shows must negotiate with carriers for inclusion in the lineup of shows offered.
That means Newsworld and CTV Newsnet will find themselves in the same place as Sun TV, competing for attention from the public and carriers.
Still, Peladeau complained that his company was being treated unfairly, since CBC and CTV had been given help in building up their subscriber base.
Asked why he was withdrawing his request if he considered the system "unfair," Peladeau responded: "It's not as simple as that. I think we need to be open-minded and this is the attitude we will (adopt) throughout the whole process."
Sun TV, often dubbed as "Fox News North" by critics, has courted controversy since Quebecor hired Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former communications director, Kory Teneycke, to run the news operations.
Teneycke resigned abruptly in mid-September at about the same time Avaaz called in the RCMP to investigate interference with its online petition drive against the station.
Peladeau gave every indication he believed the sometimes harsh media spotlight was unwelcome and at best distracting.
"There's a lot of noise taking place in the media about this. This is disturbing the real thing, which is providing more choice to Canadians," he said.
Earlier, in a speech to the Canadian Club, the Quebec-based media baron said some of the criticism of his proposed station slated to begin airing in the new year has been "shocking" and "off the wall."
Pointing to 60 years in the media, particularly in Quebec, he said there was never an instance of his outlets publishing or broadcasting hate propaganda, and said Sun TV has no connection with the right-wing Fox News in the U.S..
Nor has there been a "secret deal" with Prime Minister Harper to offer favourable coverage on Sun TV to the government in exchange for federal funding for a NHL-ready hockey arena in Quebec City, he said.
If Canadians want to know what Sun media will be like, he said, they need only look at the Toronto Sun and other newspapers in the chain, which he conceded are on "the right of the political spectrum."
"But it would be an oversimplification to say they are on the right, period," he added. "The Sun papers could also be described as populist, irreverent, sometimes provocative."